View full sizeLynn Ischay, The Plain DealerNick Furio uses wooden and metal pieces to block out metal blocks of type to create a mass card for a client at the Star Calendar and Printing Co. on Pearl Road, as he has done since 1962.

Whatever happened to . . .?" is a weekly series updating some of the most newsworthy and interesting local stories covered in The Plain Dealer. Have a suggestion on a story we should update? Send it to John C. Kuehner.

Today, we answer these questions:

Whatever Happened to . . .

. . . . . . the Star Calendar and Printing on Pearl Road in Old Brooklyn, which used ancient hot-type printing presses?

. . . plans for a soccer stadium in Macedonia?

Whatever happened to the Star Calendar and Printing on Pearl Road in Old Brooklyn, which used ancient hot-type printing presses?

The shop still uses the 100-year-old linotype machines and other ancient presses that fill a back room.

Lynn Ischay / The Plain DealerThe Star Calendar and Printing Co. keeps rarely used, carved wooden blocks of large letters around for customers who want the kind of printing that was done 100 years ago.

Their pictures remain on the wall of the shop at 4354 Pearl Road.

"After Dan passed away, Eli got old and just didn't want to run it anymore," said George Mehalic, 53, who had worked there since he was in junior high school, 37 years ago.

Mehalic bought the business in 2006 after running it for family members since the death of Turchetto. He said he just wanted to keep the place going.

Many customers are churches, funeral homes and social clubs that need raffle tickets, mass cards and calendars.

"You have to include sequential numbers on the tickets, which is also tough to do on a printer, but this baby does is fast and accurately, just like it always did," Mehalic said.

The workhorse is an old Heidelberg printing press, built around 1900. It runs perfectly.

"It's a beautiful machine," said Nick Furio, 66, touching the smooth surface of the black iron press. "As long as you take care of it, it just keeps on running."

Furio would know. He handles all the printing presses in the shop, as he has since he started with the company in 1962

"I have no idea what I would do without him," said Mehalic. "Running these machines is a lost art. He would be hard to replace if he goes."

The transition to computer printing started back when Eli and Dante ran the place and has increased.

The company does most of the work with the computers and printers, a transition that started back when Eli and Dante ran the place.

"But for what we do we often need to use the old machines," he said. "Printers can't perforate tickets and that's what our customers want."

Furio delights in telling about taking his son to the Smithsonian Institution and seeing the very machines he operates on display in the museum.

Furio is especially proud of his wooden stamps he has made over the past 48 years, which he stores in skinny flat drawers for easy access. Stamps showing logos for local churches and businesses, some long gone, fill the trays.

Mehalic said his customers are loyal and return to him, instead of going to places like Kinkos or Office Max."We can do everything that the modern print companies can do, and we do it cheaper," he said. "We have to be cheaper. But the important thing is we know what our customers want and we give it to them, just as we did when Eli and Dante were here."

Mehalic hopes one of his grandchildren will take over his business when he decides to hang up his printer's apron.

"I would hate to lose all the history," he said. "But we're here now and we aren't going anywhere."

"It went nowhere," said Nick Kostandaras, whose Summit County Council district covers Macedonia. "The mayor was always trying to bring more business into Macedonia, but that particular project went dead."

When developers started pushing for a countywide sin tax that would net $104 million for the stadium, "that went over like a lead balloon," said Macedonia Mayor Don Kuchta, who championed the project.

Then, environmental groups had concerns about wetlands near the stadium. And after that, the economy collapsed.

"At that point in time, I said enough," Kuchta said. "I stopped the stadium project for environmental reasons and because it was going to cost the people money as far as taxes. I don't care if it's a sales tax, a sin tax, it wasn't supposed to happen. But it sure would be nice now to have some of those jobs."

The city boasts a bustling retail village, but the stadium would have meant more tax dollars, he said. Construction could have created more than 1,000 jobs, and one year of income tax from a star like David Beckham could have paved a road.

Now, the city of 10,000 is facing fiscal emergency status.

Said Kuchta, "Sometimes these really good deals are too good to be true."